EPA Proposes to Remove N.J. Site from Superfund List

Oct 01, 2007

EPA has completed cleanup work at the Tabernacle Drum Dump Superfund site in Tabernacle Township, N.Je., and is proposing to delete the site from the National Priorities List (NPL) of hazardous waste sites, officials announced on Oct. 10. The site, which was placed on the NPL in September 1984, will remain eligible for cleanup in the unlikely event that a change in site conditions would warrant such an action.

"The Tabernacle Drum Dump once posed a threat to the surrounding community because chemicals from leaking containers were contaminating the soil and ground water," said Region 2 Administrator Alan J. Steinberg. "Now that EPA has completed its work, the site no longer endangers people?s health."

The Tabernacle Drum Dump is a wooded one-acre parcel of undeveloped land bordered by farmland and residences. Between 1977 and 1984, Atlantic Disposal Services Inc. (ADS) disposed of approximately 200 containers on the site. The containers leaked and contaminated the soil and groundwater with solvents, paint sludge and heavy metals.

In February 1984, EPA ordered ADS to clean up contamination on the surface of the site and to perform an environmental study to see if deeper soil and ground water are contaminated. ADS completed the surface cleanup in July 1984, but did not perform the study. EPA then used Agency resources to evaluate the nature and extent of contamination in the deeper soil and ground water, and selected a cleanup for the site in June 1988. In November 1989, USX Corporation entered into a consent decree with EPA to implement the remedy for the site. Browning Ferris Industries, Inc. (BFI) later assumed the liability and project management from USX. The cleanup included extracting and treating contaminated ground water, re-injecting treated groundwater back into the ground, ground water monitoring, and additional sampling to confirm that the soil did not require further cleanup.

BFI completed site cleanup work in 1997, after treating the ground water and confirming that additional soil cleanup was not necessary. Long-term monitoring of the ground water after cleanup showed that 1,1,1-trichloroethane and 1,1-dichloroethene were not detected. BFI restored the site in the spring of 2005 by sealing monitoring wells, removing cleanup equipment and planting vegetation. BFI will replant the seedlings in the spring of 2008. The new vegetation will be monitored for three growing seasons to assure that the planting is successful.

For more information, contact EPA Region 2 at http://www.epa.gov/region2.

This article originally appeared in the 10/01/2007 issue of Environmental Protection.